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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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1880 9 



HAl-BOOK OF EHBEOIDEBY 



KENSINGTON STITCHES 



DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED 



AS TAUGHT AT THE 



Royal School of Art -Needlework, 



At South Kensington, England, 



PRICE. 10 CENTS. 



/ 

COPYRIGHTED AND PUBLISHED BY 

PERRY MASON & CO., BOSTON, MASS. 

l88o . 




THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF ART-NEEDLEWORK 



was founded in 1872 at South Kensington, England, under the Presidency 
of H. R. H. the Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, for the two- 
fold purpose of supplying suitable employment for Gentlewomen and re- 
storing Ornamental Needlework to the high place it once held among the 
decorative arts. 

It was first established under the title of School of Art-Needlework, 
but in 1875 ^^^ Majesty the Queen was graciously pleased to grant to it 
the prefix of "Royal." 

The Royal School of Art-Needlework exhibited at the Centennial 
Exhibition of Philadelphia, 1876, and received a Certificate of Award. 
A Silver Medal was also granted by the Jurors of the International Exhi- 
bition, Paris, 1878, for embroideries exhibited there. 

This School has been very popular in England and Scotland. Its 
popularity has extended to this country, and is growing rapidly. 



(2) 



STITCHES USED IN HAND EMBROIDERY 



AS TAUGHT AT THE 



ROYAL SCHOOL OF ART-NEEDLEWORK. 



To avoid pulling or puckering the work, care should be 
taken — firstly, that the needle is not too small, so as to require 
any force in drawing it through the material ; secondly, the ma- 
terial must be held in a convex position over the fingers, so that 
the crewel or silk in the needle shall be looser than the ground ; 
and thirdly, not to use too long needlefuls. These rules apply 
generally to all handworked embroideries. 

STITCHES. 

Stem Stitch. — The first stitch which is taught to a beginner 
is ''stem stitch." It is most useful in work done in the hand, 
and especially in outlines of flowers, unshaded leaves, and ara- 
besque, and all conventional designs. 




niustration, No. 1. — Stem Stitch. 



It may be best described as a long stitch forward on the sur- 
face, and a shorter one backward on the under side of the fab- 

(3) 



STITCHES USED IN 



ric, the stitches following each other almost in line from left to 
right. The effect on the wrong side is exacth^ that of an irregu- 
lar back-stitching used by dressmakers, as distinguished from 
regular stitching. A leaf w^orked in outline should be begun at 
the lower or stalk end, and worked round the right side to the 
top, taking care that the needle is to the left of the thread as it 
is drawn out. When the x)oint of the leaf is reached, it is best 
to reverse the operation in working down the left side towards 
the stalk again, so as to keep the needle to the right of the thread 
instead of to the left, as in going up. 

The reason of this will be easily understood : we will sup- 
pose the leaf to have a slightly serrated edge (and there is no 




Ulustration, No. 2. 

leaf in nature with an absolutely smooth one) . It will be found 
that in order to give this ragged appearance, it is necessary to 
have the points at which the insertions of the needle occur on 
the outside of the leaf: wiiereas if the stem stitch were contin- 
ued down the left side, exactly in the same manner as in ascend- 
ing the right, we should have the ugly anomaly of a leaf out- 
lined thus : — 




llluiitration, No. '6. 

If the leaf is to be worked '^solidly," another row of stem 
stitching must be taken up the centre of it (unless it bo a veiy 



i 



HAND EMBROIDERY. 5 

narrow leaf), to the top. The two halves of the leaf must then 
be filled in, separately, with close, even rows of stem stitch, 
worked in the ordinary way with the needle to the left of the 
thread. This will prevent the ugly ridge which remains in the 
centre, if it is worked round and round the inside of the out- 
line. Stem stitch must be varied according- to the work in hand. 
If a perfectly even line is required, care must be taken that the 
direction of the needle when inserted is in a straight line with 
the preceding stitch. If a slight serrature is required, each 
stitch must be sloped a little by inserting the needle at a slight 
angle, as shown in the illustration. 

The length of the surface stitches must vary to suit the 
style of each piece of embroidery. 



.<rr. 




lUustration, No. 4. — Satin Stitch. 



Satin Stitch — French Plumetis — is one of those chiefly used 
in white embroidery, and consists in taking the needle each time 
back again almost to the spot from which it started, so that the 
same amount of crewel or silk remains on the back of the work 
as on the front. This produces a surface as smooth as satin : 
hence its name. It is chiefly used in working the petals of small 
flowers, such as '^forget-me-nots," and in arabesque designs 
where a raised efiect is wanted in small masses. 

Blanket Stitch is used for working the edges of table-covers, 
mantel valances, blankets. «Src., or for edging any other material. 



6 STITCHES USED IK 

It is simply a button-liole stitch, and may be varied in many 
ways by sloping- the stitches alternately to right and left ; by 
working two or three together, and leaving- a space between 
them and the next set ; or by working a second row round the 
edge of the cloth over the first with a different shade of wool. 

Feather Stitch. — Vulgarly called 'Hong and short stitch,'' 
^'lovrj stitch,^' and sometimes ''embroidery stitch/^ Wc propose 
to restore to it its ancient title of feather stitch — ''Opus Pluma- 
rium,'' so called from its supposed resemblance to the plumage 
of a bird. 





Illustration, No. 10.— Feather Stitch. 

These two modes differ very little in appearance, as the prin- 
ciple is the same, namely, that the stitches are of varying length, 
and are worked into and between each other, adapting them- 
selves to the form of the design, but in handwork the needle is 
kept on the surface of the material. 

Feather Stitch is generally used for embroidering flowers, 
whether natural or conventional. 

In working the petal of a flower (such as we have chosen 
for our illustration) , the outer part is first worked in with stitch- 
es which form a close, even edge on the outline, but a broken 
one towards the centre of the petal, being alternately long and 



k, 



HANI) EMBROIDERY. ' 7 

short. These edging stitches resemble satin stitch in so far that 
the same amount of crewel or silk appears on the under, as on 
the upper side of the work : they must slope towards the nar- 
row part of the petal. 

The next stitches are somewhat like an irregular ''stem/"' 
inasmuch as they are longer on the surface than on the under 
side, and are worked in between the uneven lengths of the edg- 
ing stitches so as to blend with them. The petal is then filled 
up by other stitches, which start from the centre, and are car- 
ried between those already worked. 

When the petal is finished, the rows of stitches should be so 
merged in each other that they cannot he distinguished, and 
when shading is used, the colors should appear to melt into 
each other. 

In serrated leaves, such as hawthorn or Virginia creeper, the 
edging stitches follow the broken outline of the leaf instead of 
forming an even outer edge. 

It is necessary to master thoroughly this most important 
stitch, but practice only can make the worker perfect. 

The work should always be started by running the thread a 
little way in front of the embroidery. Knots should never be 
used except in rare cases, when it is impossible to avoid them. 
The tliread should always be finished otf on the surface of the 
work, never at the back, where there should be no needless waste 
of material. No untidy ends or knots should ever appear there ; 
in fact, the wrong side should be quite as neat as the right. It 
is a mistake to suppose that pasting will ever do away with the 
evil effects of careless work, or will steady embroidery which 
has been commenced with knots, nnd finished with loose ends at 
the back. 

The stitches vary constantly according to their application, 
and good embroiderers difi'er in their manner of using them : 
some preferring to carry the thread back towards the centre of 
the petal, on the surface of the work, so as to avoid waste of 
material; others making their stitches as in satin stitch — the 
same on both sides, but these details may be left to the intelli- 
o-ence and taste of the worker, who should never be afi'aid of 
trying experiments, or working out new ideas. 

Nor should she ever fear to unpick her work ; for onl\ by 



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STITCHES USED IN 



experiment can she succeed in finding the best combinations, 
and one little piece ill done, will be sufficient to spoil her whole 
embroidery, as no toucliing-up can afterwards improve it. 



We have now named the principal stitches used in hand- 
embroidery, whether to be executed in crewel or silk. 

There arc, however, numberless other stitches used in crewel 
embroidery : such as ordinary stitching, like that used in plain 
needlework, in which many designs were formerly traced on 
quilted backgrounds — others, again, are many of them lace 
stitches, or forms of herringbone, and are used for filling in the 
foliage of large conventional floriated designs, such as we are 
accustomed to see in the English crewel work of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, on a twilled cotton material, resem- 
bling our modern Bolton sheeting. 

It would be impossible to describe or even enumerate them 
all; as varieties may be constantly invented by an ingenious 
worker to enrich her design, and in lace work there arc already 
100 named stitches, which occasionally are used in decorative 
embroidery. Most of these, if required, can be shown as 
taught at the Royal School of Art-Needlework, and are illustra- 
ted by samplers. 



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